LUPE FIASCO | PRE- GLOW IN THE DARK 08′ [INTERVIEW]

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I rate Lupe. Even though he’s achieving superstar status in the UK and killing it on the pop charts, he’s still cool, down to earth, and one of my favourite mc’s.

I hooked up with him in the UK recently for another hot interview. The full interview can be heard this Friday at 10pm GMT on 1xtra. Here’s a bit of what he had to say about the infamous Glow In the Dark Tour, Kanye, CRS, Lil Wayne, Obama vs Clinton, and working in the UK….

How you feeling about the forth-coming Glow in The Dark tour? 
I feel good, I feel upbeat, I’m more excited for my artists to see it  I’ve got a very talented roster Matthew Santos, Sarah Green Nikki Jean, these new kids I just picked up He Say She Say, of course Gemstones for them to get that opportunity to get on that stage and to go up there and actually perform something that is a hit that they are responsible for being a hit or are associated with it being a hit, more than it just being a homie look for them to take those hits and propel their careers. I’m more exicted to put them on and see how they are gonna perform, when they go out to do a verse on such and such or a hook on something. But you know I’m happy to be around the big NERD I’m a big fan
You got Rhianna on the bill, NERD, Kanye West.
You know what that means, you got CRS on the bill!!
It’s a wonderful line up, it should be a good tour its already sold out every week they add another few dates.

What joints are you looking forward to performing?
‘Hello, Goodbye’ – we’re gonna use this tour to break out some of the more eclectic records on the album – we’ve put out a lot of the pop stuff with ‘Paris Tokyo’ being the next single in the US but we definitely want to push the more eclectic side – the 2nd half of the album. 

How do you feel about the Obama vs. Hilary situation?
I’m a bite and take 50’s stance – I’m kinda uninterested. I was interested at first but now its not even mathematically a race anymore between Barack and Hilary. Barack is like crushing her, there are still some things he has to get passed but ya know the real fight and I always said it was the real fight, no matter who got there to the democratic nomination was when they go up against the republicans. Because the Republicans are no punks and you better believe that and most of the country is on some ‘we good’ and I still tell people the second time Bush ran for office he won the popular vote. He won it fair and square, it wasn’t no big discrepancy, next time he should have lost ridiculously, he won fair and square on all sides. They are definitely a force to be reckoned with, the republicans are gonna play real dirty… that is really when the fight starts.

The way that Wayne has done it a lot of people have been critical because he has jumped on so many tracks – do you think that could be the new model? 
Nah, I just had a discussion about that – unless you can keep the intensity there you are gonna burn out and no one is gonna care.
No one is gonna care. when it means something is the album.
Albums may not mean anything to consumers, they may not mean anything to ITunes fans any more nothing like that – the singles generation but the core hip hop that is still gonna be around when it comes back because everything comes back and works in cycles. The same people are gonna be expecting the album. So if you come with all this content all this content all this content 
I caught it on my mixtapes and my fans were asking why my mixtapes are banging and my album was so blah compared and I was like I can’t do mixtapes anymore I got to put all that energy into my albums. It works for some, some it don’t for a lot it don’t, it works for Wayne – he’s a monster and for 50 he’s a monster he can keep it going and going. 

How did you hook up with Shux on Hi-definition?
See how it plays out UK, London shows me so much love and I show love back. I might not do it overtly standing on top of a building with a flag but I go out and get one of your finest producers, you know Shux produced ‘Little Derek’, very phenomenonal, he did a lot of stuff for Lily Allen – a really talented musical dude. I just left him and he was playing acoustic guitar for Estelle. I grabbed one [a track] of him, put snoop dogg and made it a hit. He merked it and more things are coming. You haven’t heard the last of Lupe Fiasco and Shux.

How did you hook up with him?

Through Sway, Mr DaSafo, shot to Sway and the Dcypha crew they’re a random crew. 

Whats the word with CRS?
I think P has got a studio on his bus, I ain’t got a studio on my bus – that thing costs extra and I’m already payin out of my pocket. 

But there must be some ‘hey listen to this beat, ‘come and do a verse on this…’?
Yeh but we do that anyway I’ll jump on garageband and come up with something idea for CRS and send it across to P and he’ll come up with some idea for some remix and send it over to me. We’ll send it to Ye and he’ll send something back. We keep it going I just think its gonna intensify when we are all in the same circle. 

How many tracks have been done so far?

Sorry people, check out the full interview on Friday night here!